steelyard

Meanings

1. A transportable balance with unequal arm lengths.
2. A place where steel (and possibly other metals as well) is stored and sold.

Etymology

From steel + yard (“enclosed area, rod”). The sense of “place” is a calque of Dutch staalhof or Middle Low German Stalhof (Modern Dutch staal (“steel”) + hof (“court, yard”)). The sense of “balance” is presumably from the sense of “place”, originally “steelyard beam”, mixed with additional sense of “rod” (hence “rod for weighing steel”), replacing earlier Latin statera.